Studies upon catalytic combustion.— Part I. The union of carbon monoxide and oxygen in contact with a gold surface

Abstract

The experiments which will be described in this and succeeding papers of the series are a continuation of the previous researches of Bone and Wheeler upon “The Combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen in Contact with Hot Surfaces,” which were published in 1906. They were begun at Manchester University twenty years ago, continued at the University of Leeds, and are now being completed at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. The delay in publishing the results has not been disadvantageous, because it has allowed of our testing some recent theoretical developments concerning catalytic combustion, and more particularly that due to Langmuir. These, it will be remembered, formed the subject of a special discussion held in London on September 20, 1921, under the auspices of the Faraday Society, in which a number of the leading investigators throughout the world participated. The previous work of Bone and Wheeler ( loc . cit .), in which the actions of a number of widely different hot surfaces upon the combination of hydrogen and oxygen at pressures between 500 and 50 mm. were systematically studied, had disclosed the following outstanding facts:— (1) That the catalyzing power of a new surface at a given temperature usually increases up to a certain steady “normal” state, after which the rate of steam formation is always directly proportional to the pressure, provided that the two gases (hydrogen and oxygen) are present in their combining ratios, and that the product (steam) is rapidly removed from the sphere of action.